Winter Mischief
by misspatchesmom
Summary: The DiNozzo and McGee kids have a long weekend and have fun in the snow. What mischief are the seven kids cooking up this time? Part of the "You Complete Me" universe.


Winter Mischief

 _DiNozzo and McGee kids in the snow; parents join in. February 2028 (Tali 13, Anthony 10, Rivka/Beth 8, LJ 7; John/Katie, 10)_

It was Presidents' Day weekend and the DC area had snow. There was about two feet of the stuff on the ground and Ziva was sure the gods of karma had been out to punish her for wishing for warmer and nicer weather when the kids had off from school for the long weekend. The teachers had a work day on Tuesday, so the kids were out for four days. She had invited the McGee twins to spend the time with her family to give their parents a chance to get a weekend for just them.

This year the holiday was also Rivka and Beth's eighth birthday. On Saturday, the family had met the Palmers, Gibbs, Abby, and several of the twins' friends from school at the roller skating rink for a birthday party. The girls had even managed to persuade Grandpa to skate. He rolled around the rink with a birthday twin on each side, holding their hands as they circled the rink. Ziva had captured some great video and still shots of Grandpa and his girls.

Sunday had been a cold, dreary, and grey day, so Tony had set up a movie marathon for all of them to enjoy. Each child got to pick a movie, which was added to the stack to watch. Tony told them that he would play the movies in the reverse birth order for the kids, so LJ's choice played first.

The family watched _The Lion King_ , _The Borrowers_ , _An American Tail_ , _Tron_ , _Pocahontas_ , _Transformers_ , and _The Dovekeepers_. Ziva set up the tray tables in the family room, and they had lunch and dinner while watching the movies. She had made finger foods and sandwiches for both meals, which made cleaning up much easier. For the dessert in the evening, they had ice cream sundaes. Tony had kept the supply of popcorn going all day.

When the end credits for the last movie showed, Tony and Ziva sent the seven kids to get ready for bed. It took nearly an hour to get them all settled in for the night; Katie slept in the trundle bed in Tali's room, while John was in one of the bunk beds in Anthony's room. LJ tried to weasel story time out of his Ima, without success.

Monday was a sunny, but cold day. Ziva sent the kids outside after breakfast to run and play off some energy. When she saw the seven huddled by the swing set, she knew they were plotting something. These seven could cook up mischief faster than anyone. Anthony and John were often the masterminds, with Tali helping to finalize any plan for pranks or mischief. The other four followed along most of the time, although LJ was known to have hatched a plot or two of his own.

The next time she looked out to check on them, she could see walls of snow around the yard, some of them nearly as tall as Tony. The kids were all busy making snowballs and stacking them near the walls. To Ziva, it looked as though they were planning a massive snowball fight. Suddenly Tony came down the pathway from the driveway to the backyard. He was pushing a wheelbarrow full of snow, which he dumped on the ground for the kids. Ziva smiled; her 'big kid' was probably having the most fun of all.

A little later, she heard noises on the deck. She looked out to see Tony and Anthony by the patio door. She figured they were just taking a break and went back to her baking. She was making a birthday cake for Rivka and Beth. Half was chocolate devil's food cake and half was strawberry flavored cake. Her girls were identical twins, but had very different preferences with food. Dinner was cooking in the crockpot; a beef stew that was one of the family's favorite winter meals.

The cake had just come from the oven, and was sitting on the cooling racks when Anthony came inside and asked his Ima to come outside to see the snow forts they had made in the back yard. Ziva put on her boots, coat, hat and gloves and walked out the back door. Unknown to her, Tony and Anthony had rigged a bucket of the soft powdery snow from the north side of the house, where it had drifted. Ziva got the bucketful dumped on her. Anthony snickered and took off into the yard. She could hear the other children laughing and Tony was standing by one of the forts grinning.

"This is WAR, Anthony D. DiNozzo, Junior and Anthony D. DiNozzo, the third. You had better be very glad that I do not have any paperclips." Ziva watched Tony's grin get smaller as she mentioned paperclips. She smirked to herself; she could still make him cringe with that reference from so long ago.

As she headed into the yard, Gibbs popped out from behind one of the forts and threw as snowball at her. She narrowed her eyes, "I should have known you were behind this, Abba!"

Tali called out to her Ima, "Come over to our forts, Ima. It's girls versus boys in this snowball battle." Tali threw a snowball at her Abba as he prepared to throw one at Ziva. It hit him in the chest, splatting into his face. He grinned and threw the snowball at Tali instead.

That was it; the snowballs were flying back and forth, hitting forts and people. Rivka managed to hit Tony in the side of the head once; and Katie had hit Anthony in the back of the head. All ten of them were laughing when a particularly lucky throw by Tali had hit Gibbs in the back of the neck and some of the snow slid down inside his clothing. He snuck around the forts and poured another bucket of the fine, powdery snow over Tali's head from behind, sending Katie, Rivka, Beth, and LJ into giggles.

Ziva had snuck behind the shed, and was near the hedge on the side where Tony was watching his girls from behind a fort. They were planning to bombard him with snowballs in an attack by all three, and he was paying attention to them. Ziva snuck up behind Tony. As the girls let the snowballs fly, Ziva put a handful of snow down Tony's jacket. He jumped in the air, yelling curse words in Hebrew. Ziva burst out laughing, and he turned to look at her.

"Playing dirty, Ziva?" Tony gave her his best sneer, trying not to laugh. "You WILL regret this move!" He grabbed two snowballs and started in her direction. She turned and ran to the forts on the girls' side, Tony right behind her. Katie had been behind the fort, and she heard footsteps coming towards her. She thought one of the boys was going to get her with snow. She stepped out and tossed a snowball, causing Ziva to have to veer quickly. The sudden change of direction allowed Tony to catch up to Ziva and he tackled her, both of them landing face down in the snow.

All five DiNozzo children started laughing, and Gibbs quickly joined them. Only John and Katie didn't laugh. They were standing open mouthed. Their parents never did anything like this, so they weren't sure what was going to happen.

Tony took his handful of snow and shoved it down Ziva's back, yelling, "PAYBACK!" He stood up quickly. Ziva turned over to sit up and Tony took her hand in his and pulled her to her feet. She smiled at him.

"Truce?" He nodded and pulled her to him, his lips meeting hers.

"EWWWW, they're kissing." Both LJ and Anthony made a face.

"Let us all go inside and warm up by having cookies and hot chocolate." Ziva suggested to the group. A chorus of "yes" responded to her. Ziva put her gloved hand in Tony's, interlacing their fingers, and walked towards the house. The rest of the family followed behind, with Gibbs at the rear.

Wet gloves, hats and coats were hung on the drying rack in the laundry room, with Gibbs helping to place wet clothing to dry. As Ziva made hot chocolate for everyone, Tali and Tony got the tins of cookies out on the dining room table. Ziva brought seven large mugs of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream on a tray for the kids. Gibbs brought the three mugs for the adults; he had added a half shot of bourbon to each mug. They definitely all warmed up with the snack!


End file.
